Heathrow airport has announced plans to cope with the extra traffic it will handle over the Olympics.

A temporary terminal between terminals four and five will be active for three days to be used exclusively by athletes leaving the games. It will contain 31 check-in desks and five security lanes.

BAA said it has spent more than £20m into extra facilities to relieve the strain on the other five terminals and to make sure passengers could come and go “without a hitch”.

It will need it, as 13th August will be the busiest day in the airport’s history. There will be almost 138,000 departures and 200,000 bags; 50,000 more than a normal day and 13,000 more than it is designed to handle.

Sixteen mobile teams, each with 10 border guards, will target trouble spots when queues start to build up. Border Force director Marc Owen said there will also be hundreds of extra trained border guards, however he refused to reveal precise numbers.

Passengers will also have a cheery good bye from 1,000 volunteers from the local community who will be brought in to do this along with various other duties.